URBAN TREES:
- Provide sound buffers for large urban areas.
- Reduce utility bills (air conditioning in summer, heating in winter) when planted properly.
- Heating: Using trees as windbreaks allows savings of 10% - 20%* Cooling: Shading windows and walls can lower AC costs by 25% - 50%* Reduction of our energy demands reduces our use of fossil fuels.
- Reduces flooding by intercepting rainfall.*
- Produce a sense of rootedness and community.
- Help to cool cities by reducing heat sinks. Heat sinks are 6-19 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than their surroundings (Global Releaf-Georgia). A tree can be a natural air conditioner. The evaporation from a single large tree can produce the cooling effect of 10 room size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day. (USDA pamphlet # FS-363)
- Cleans the air. Removes dust, particulates, absorbs ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants. (ISA Pamphlet, 1991)
- Soften harsh contours of buildings.
- Increase commercial and residential property values. Homes on lots with many trees have 6% - 12% higher appraised values. * Trees can help increase the value of your property, sometimes by 10% - 20%. (USDA pamphlet # FS-363)
- Reduce urban blight by adding beauty.
- Trees act as a carbon-sink by removing the carbon from CO2 and storing it as a cellulose in the trunk while releasing oxygen back into the air. * Trees can absorb carbon dioxide at the rate of 26 pounds per year - especially young trees that are still growing. (Global Releaf-Georgia). One tree that shades your home will also save fossil fuel, cutting CO2 buildup as much as 15 forest trees. (The National Arbor Day Foundation pamphlet # 90980005
- Prevent soil erosion
- Freshen the atmosphere with the trees own pleasant fragrances. For example, 1 cherry tree can perfume the air with 200,000 flowers. (USDA pamphlet # FS-363)
- Provide wildlife habitats for birds, squirrels, etc.
- Provide Privacy.
- Direct Pedestrian Traffic.
* Enviro News/Louisiana Gateway 2020. Spring/Summer 1993, Vol IV
A recommended article about 'Urban Forestry and Your Home' posted by the online, home improvement organization Networx.
FOREST TREES:
- Trees store carbon and clean the atmosphere. In 50 years, one tree generates $30,000 in oxygen, recycles $35,000 of water, and removes $60,000 of air pollution. **
- Prevent or reduce soil erosion. **
- Prevent or reduce water pollution. **
- Recharge groundwater and sustain streamflow. **
- Supply material for houses, furniture, paper products, etc...
- Crop yields of fields with windbreaks are significantly higher than those without windbreaks. **
- Provide food: nutmeats (walnuts, pecans, hickory, etc.), fruit (plums, peaches, apples, pears), berries for jams and jellies, sap for maple syrup. **
- Living snowfences, strategically placed, hold snow away from roads, reducing maintenance costs. **
- Provide watersheds for city reservoirs
- Absorb dust and heat. Reduce glare.
- Add oxygen to the air.
- Reduce soil, water and air pollution.
- Increase atmospheric moisture; reduce environmental water consumption.
- Some trees even provide key medicinal ingredients for illness cures and treatments.
- One out of every four pharmaceutical products used in the US comes from tropical forest plants. **
- Provide oxygen, reduce carbon dioxide.
- Provides necessary habitats for thousands of animals from birds to land animals to water animals.
** Source: USDA Forest Service Pamphlet# R1-92-100
RIPARIAN (RIVERSIDE) TREES
- Slow floodwaters
- Filter runoff and sediment from slopes next to the stream.
- Increases groundwater supply, which we use as a water supply for cities.
- Provides shade so water animals can survive, keeps the river cool, provides food for water-loving animals. Fish require healthy riparian areas and will sometimes die without them.
- Provides necessary homes for a variety of birds.
- Provides habitats for animals such as beavers and otters.
NOTE: All riparian information taken from USDA pamphlet # FS-445, January, 1990